CONTINUOUSWAVE

A news article [about the theft of gear from boats stored at Cheasapeake Whalertown said:

...an investigation showed one or more suspects removed the ...PCM [modules] from numerous Mercury [o]utboard engines along with other electronic equipment including stereos...and navigation units.

One would assume the stolen parts to appear on eBay, Craigslist, or similar sites.

Hence I store my boat at home. I feel sorry for the owners and the dealer. Hopefully they have surveillance cameras and video. Don't buy any inexpensive PCM's in the next couple of months.

Wow! This hits home for me because Chesapeake Whalertowne is one of the locations we seriously considered for storing our boat this winter. Thankfully, we ended up with covered storage closer to home. Then again, our Whaler doesn't have any of the sophisticated electronics that these criminals were apparently after.

The article suggests that police suspect the crime was committed by someone very familiar with the operations of the storage facility.

I did not think there would be such a lucrative black market for Brunswick's outboard engine electronic controllers. They must be expensive and prone to needing replacement.

jimh wrote:I did not think there would be such a lucrative black market for Brunswick's outboard engine electronic controllers. They must be expensive and prone to needing replacement.

Somewhat expensive depending upon the model. $600 for a smaller motor to over $4,000 for a 350 Verado.

Prone to the need to be replaced probably on par with most any other brand.

More than likely taken because of the relatively high value and their ease of removal and portability. Thieves are lazy. Easier to walk away with an ECU or MFD than a lower unit. But then lower units are in high demand so it makes it worth while to go to the trouble to remove one.

[ASIDE about human nature deleted.--jimh]

I can certainly understand that removing a $4,000 electronic module could be done faster than dropping a large outboard engine gear case. And an electronic module is also much lighter and smaller to carry away in a hurry.

Due to the anticipated very low temperatures we can have in Michigan, I never leave any electronics on the boat during winter storage. The liquid crystal display (LCD) in most recreational marine electronic devices is not rated for exposure to extreme cold temperature. There is usually a day or two every winter with temperatures below 0-degrees-F. I would worry about an expensive color display left in unheated storage at that temperature.

Let's hope the thieves are caught.

In particular the Verado Gen 2 four cylinder modules have a lot of value. All that is required to boost horsepower from a 135HP Verado like mine to 200HP is the module from a 200HP Verado. The same may be true for some of the six cylinder models.

Whalertown had a similar [theft] several years ago as I recall. I think there was a boat stolen from their yard. There was a thread about it on CW. I used to use them but no longer do.